Personal shopping with Kelly Lundberg in Dubai

Dubai-based personal stylist Kelly Lundberg gives us a style makeover

By
Jenny Hewett
03 November 2014

Jenny Hewett welcomes Dubai-based personal stylist Kelly Lundberg into her home for a wardrobe-weeding session ahead of a personal shopping adventure to replenish her outdated attire with stylish new threads.

‘I want people to view having a personal stylist in the same way they would view getting their hair or nails done or having a personal trainer,’ says Dubai-based super-stylist Kelly Lundberg. The Scottish owner of image consultancy start-up StyleMeDivine is hoping to change the luxury face of personal styling to make it more accessible to shoppers in Dubai. Having recently launched an online styling workshop and three-day offline course, she believes training more people is the key to making personal styling less niche. ‘If you don’t know how to fix your own wardrobe, don’t feel under pressure to do it yourself, get someone else in. You’ll save time and money,’ she says. With that in mind, we let her loose on our wardrobe before hitting the shops. Here are the five stages of our revamp.

1 TimeDepending on the size of your wardrobe, sessions usually last three to four hours, though Kelly admits to spending 12 hours over a period of days on one case. She says, ‘If it’s a small or average-sized wardrobe, we would have a consultation at your home to understand what you have. I’d do a mini wardrobe edit and start creating a shopping list. I would then send you a set of style goals in the next day or two. I always believe that like anything, if it’s not written down, you won’t do it.’

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2 Style personalityIf you’re averse to being typecast, you may mentally bump heads with this part. But it’s all good information. Kelly explains that our style personality defines our overall look. Without even seeing our wardrobe, it’s clear she has a pretty good idea of what we’re about. She makes a verbal note that we’re drawn to details and deems our style personality to be creative. She also asks us to rate our wardrobe out of ten, finds out exactly what we want to achieve from the session, enquires where we shop and establishes our budget.

3 OrganisationThe doors have swung open and Kelly is now visually sifting through the contents of our wardrobe. She explains that the best way to sort it is to organise it into lifestyle (work, going out, weekend) and then if you’re particularly pedantic, again into items – so skirts, shirts, dresses, blazers and colours. Comfortingly, she admits there’s not a lot of work for us to do in this department, as our wardrobe is already coordinated.

4 Key piecesKelly eyes a pair of shorts, two skirts and some silk trousers and puts them aside to take on our shopping mission a few days later. While there are certain pieces in your wardrobe you may love, be open to hearing that she doesn’t, and listening to her reasons why. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to part ways with the item, but it’s a good chance to re-evaluate why they’re in your wardrobe, what they do for you and if you really need them.

5 ShoppingWe meet Kelly at Mall of the Emirates on a Saturday morning. Prior to this, she’s emailed through some style goals and links of the types of things she thinks would suit us. Over the course of two hours, we visit a number of shops within our budget and she picks out edgier pieces and a few we wouldn’t necessarily choose ourselves. Kelly exudes confidence and she just gets it. After nearly two hours, we walk away with two amazing pairs of shoes, two tops and a scarf. Dhs495 per hour for wardrobe weeding; Dhs495 per hour for personal shopping session, minimum two hours. StyleMeDivine, www.stylemedivine.com.